Quotes from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

As the camera, I try to subordinate every word to be truthful and honest to each character's context.

Two words guided the making of 'Babel' for me: 'dignity' and 'compassion.' These things are normally forgotten in the making of a lot of films. Normally there is not dignity because the poor and dispossessed in a place like Morocco are portrayed as mere victims, or the Japanese are portrayed as cartoon figures with no humanity.

Good directors don't answer questions with their work. They generate debate and create discussion.

Every time that I'm challenged with a film I think that I haven't learned anything, that every film is different and that every thing that I have learned is useless in this new adventure.

I realized - and I am probably the last person in the world to realize this - that we live our lives with no editing.

When you have something that is bothering you, and then you articulate, take the time to really express it and see it clearly, to recognize. To acknowledge that is already a liberating energy.

Trump doesn't know it yet, but he will become one of the guys that he hates very soon. Soon he will be a loser.

I have a lot of what you might call creative self-loathing - I have pretty high expectations, and they seem to consistently be higher than what I'm able to accomplish.

I'm neurotic. I complain all the time. I'm a workaholic. And I'm never satisfied.

When I think about growing up, I feel most affected by two travels that I made working in cargo boats when I was 16 and 18. One of them crossed through the Mississippi and Baton Rouge and Mobile, Alabama, and another went all the way to Europe.

For the actors, the talent is to serve the demands that I ask of them, to do it with naturality and truth, and to be honest when we were terrified.

In 'A Confession,' Tolstoy found meaning that he could hold on to, and he lived for another 30 years.

In the United States there's not a lot of people interested in foreign language films. Every time, it's more difficult for foreign language films to survive here.

I am not a depressive person at all, but I reflect a lot on my life, and life in general, from the perspective of death.

The demographic complexity of this country should be reflected not only at the end of the chain, but since the beginning, in order that more of these people can be excited and integrated.

I think bad movies are made around the world, not just in Hollywood. There are as many bad art films in the whole world as there are bad commercial films.

The corporation and the hedge funds have a hold on Hollywood, and they all want to make money on anything that signifies cinema.

I'm very curious, I guess, as a human being.

It's not anthrax or terrorism or AIDS that is the worst ill in our world: The most horrible disease in the world is hate.

I'm scared of horses, and I don't know how to shoot them, but that's what excites me. After 40 years old, if you don't do some things that really terrify you, I don't think they're worth doing.

I personally think that you have to get lost to find something really worthwhile, at least sometimes.

I'm overwhelmed by the pain in the world; I'm affected by the news very much, and adding that to my work was becoming a little bit too much.

Too much knowledge and analysis can be paralysis.

Irony is a great tool to deal with things. It's an intellectualization, a way to go above things, which can work.